BIOGRAPHY

GRANT NEWTON REMMEN

I am a Hertz Fellow and NSF Fellow in my fifth year as a PhD student in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. At Caltech, I have conducted research on problems ranging from the Weak Gravity Conjecture and bounding quantum corrections to Einstein's equations, to reformulations of graviton perturbation theory, to problems involving making statistical predictions for cosmology from various models of inflation, to probing and constraining conjectures for emergent spacetime, gravity, and holography. My advisors are Professor Clifford Cheung and Professor Sean Carroll.

In 2012, I graduated summa cum laude with high distinction from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with a triple major B.S. in physics, astrophysics, and mathematics (GPA 4.0). I was named a United States Presidential Scholar in 2008, a Goldwater Scholar in 2010, and received the Chambliss medal for exemplary student research from the American Astronomical Society in 2011. As an undergraduate, I received the Dean's Summer International Student Scholarship from University College London, enabling me to conduct research on multi-body relativistic gravitational systems at Mullard Space Science Laboratory in 2011. My full CV can be found at this link (pdf).

I was born and raised in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Growing up, I was always fascinated with physics for its ability to explain the most extreme phenomena of the Universe, from the powerful gravitation of black holes to unraveling the details of the Big Bang. After concluding my graduate studies, I plan to pursue a career in academic research, allowing me to investigate solutions to the most important and fundamental problems in theoretical physics, with applications to astrophysics and cosmology: dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, black holes, etc.

Outside of physics, I'm an enthusiastic musician and, with my brother Cole, have recently written and composed a two-act musical, Boldly Go!, which premiered as Caltech’s mainstage production in early 2016. I serve as a Physics Representative on the Caltech Graduate Student Council Board of Directors and Academics Committee. In my youth, I was also an avid aficionado of words and spelling, competing three times in the National Spelling Bee on ESPN.